First Age
The first age began when the Infinite Dream first awakened to itself, and physical reality came into being as Minara was thrust, flailing, into an empty existence. During the first age, the gods were born, the first alignment was formulated, and the majority of the physical world was shaped. Creation Myth In the beginning there was only the dream. The dream existed for its own timeless eternity, undulating and listless in the infinite unknown. The dream eventually shifted into balance, with nothing to perceive other than itself, and nothing to transform it. Realizing the danger of a stagnant existence the dream looked for an escape amid total isolation. As movement slowed to a halt the dream broke outward, fracturing reality into new dimensions. The Dream awakened to the possibility of a physical dimension, forming personifications of dreaming in the form of six gods within the Dream Cradle. Minara, the god of creation, was thrust instantly into the void, her flailing body creating the first matter of the material world. Sculpting her form from the void of dreaming, the first world arose; physical existence constantly expanding to inhabit where her dream vessel traversed. As Minara became accustomed to this new physicality, she turned inward to the dream once again and became drawn in by distant forms caught within the dream. For years, Minara traveled through the void to free these beings, her siblings caught within the void of dreaming. This pilgrimage came to be known for the endless deep tunnels that were created in the wake of her passing during that time. Vishu, the god of darkness, was first to be liberated by Minara. Brought to physicality in Minara's image, Vishu entered the darkness perfectly at peace, her form mirroring the world they occupied. For Minara it was her first change, and a welcome exchange as the god of darkness entered the mind of the world shaper where only dreams and void had resided. The two gods continued to roam for months, stuck between physicality and the dream. Vishu led through the darkness, unhampered or disparaged by the void of their perception. Together they learned, feeding off one another's perspective in an otherwise blank world. As the eighth month came to a close, they come upon Toru, the god of souls. Through Toru dreaming seeped into the physical world and the Dream Cradle began to thrum with possibility. As Toru's soul poured through the physical world he unwittingly let the dream escape, leaving consciousness embedded in the caverns and tunnels they travelled. Toru was alarmed at his own lack of control, and sought greater fulfillment than leaving the foundations of the world steeped in unending dreams. Rather than leaving the physical world filled of empty souls, Toru's yearning to spread the dream drove him to meet the god of energy. Caught by the hunger for creating life, Toru urged the three gods to seek out the god of light, and excavated him from the depths of the dream. As energy bloomed in the waking world life took root in the dream cradle, and the first of the primordial races came into being. Gzaji brought illumination, and for a time the four awakened gods lived and created together. The three gods of creation formed the first forms of life, lead by the Fariah. The Fariah were made to expand and shape the countless worlds that would exist, pulling the physical world out from the dream. True to the dream's intention, the task of creation came to be split among thousands of individual minds, proliferating further and wider as time carried on. Each new perspective became responsible for new arrangements of structures, patterns, and matter. Gzaji brought forth the Oraphin next, heralds of light who brought forth cities imbued with everlasting power. The Mütt came next, beings who swallowed the light and warmth of the world around them. Vishu saw the separate roles each had in the world, and retreated to the darkness together with the Mütt. He chose to remain for a time in the darkness, and travelled the dream's cradle to allow light its own exploration of the material world. Toru neglected to bring his own species into existence, and sought next to bring the god of dreaming to the material world. Together with Minara and Gzaji they ventured to find her, and eventually liberated the body of Kuuth from the void. This god of dreaming and Toru bonded to one another, and together created the Nerim and Mantu. Minara parted with these two soon after, as a greater fear and understanding took hold concerning the remaining god still unformed. Minara returned to rule over the settlements and cities that began to form in their absence, and secretly allied with Gzaji against the forces of dreaming. Through them, the First Alignment beliefs became solidified and proliferated through the cities, creating unified beliefs concerning life, the dream, and the roles of each god. Nearly three centuries passed. The Oraphin continued to toil at building spired cities powered with immaculate technology of never ending light. The Khana fractured as a society, with many leaving their predecessors as nomad shapers of their world to build flying cities of collective thought. The Mantu too had their own practices, which led to the proliferation of the soul throughout all reaches of the material world. Together with the ground-walking Khana, these two species formed rituals of their own, which inevitably led to the creation of new lifeforms entirely separate from gods. Cities grew, countless species of fauna and creature were born, and the boundaries of the material world continued ever growing. As the fourth century of life came to a close, Toru and Kuuth became increasingly troubled with the state of existence as they discovered distortions trapped and growing throughout the Infinite Dream. The two had become immersed in souls and dreaming, their curiosity focused on the perpetual cycle that oscillates between the two. Frightened by the growing disparity between the material world and the dream, the two sought the source of instability, with Kuuth diving deep into the dream while Toru acted as a tether for her soul in the material world. The two soon discovered a partially formed soul trapped within the Infinite Dream causing massive writhing distortions that slowly consumed every surrounding. As Kuuth approached, the soul reached out to consume her, and in that contact Seth gained the knowledge of his existence apart from the dream. Toru instantly ripped Kuuth from the dream to prevent her from being devoured, and the two retreated to recuperate and meditate on a new approach. Seven cycles passed without attempt to rectify the growing instability of the dream, and Kuuth set off once again to the herald of void trapped within the dream. Kuuth dove into the growing dream searching for answers to save the slowly hollowing world. As Kuuth searched, the dream became increasingly twisted and distorted, shifting between aspects of its own reality. He soon discovered a seeping fragment of soul lodged within the dream, colossal and slowly consuming its every surrounding; the slumbering god of destruction. At the sight of such an abomination Kuuth rushed to intervene, and channeled her magic to fuse with Seth, tearing away into the physical world to save herself and the crumbling dream. For Seth, it was the first understanding of life that was neither dreaming, nor darkness, nor void, and his understanding of the dream transformed. With that Seth awakened, newly understanding the spectrum of affiliations, and emerged in the physical world as a tattered manifestation of his chaotic being. As Seth entered the world, reality was brought into temporary chaos. Every god and ancient creature sensed immediately as the largest soul in existence separated from the dream to inhabit the material world, and traveled to bear witness this miracle. As the gods and their eldest creations gathered, Seth's soul emerged into the dream cradle coalescing as a being immeasurably more powerful than any other. With a physical body that could barely contain his immense soul, Seth's first creation spawned forth from his writhing form, burrowing out from the dream through him, as the first of the Arát. Drawn by their curiosity of these monstrous entities, the countless witnesses to Seth's birth began to hunger, seeing the immense power of dreaming in their unparalleled forms. Their greatest fascination; the god of void and destruction constructing a physical body, and physical beings. Prior to Seth's birth, a being's affiliation meant a soul's boundaries, and therefore magics were restricted to each being's birthright. It was Seth who spoke first, of the blindness to dreams that festered, the persecution of destruction, and manufactured beliefs that obscured the flow of dreaming. And in seeing Seth's being Vishu gained insight into the questions his travels had brought him, and formed a creation of his own, the Zerith, beings to cohabit the spired cities of the Oraphin, and offer darkness a home to walk among the light. Seth offered words of his own philosophies to those present, framing the dream cycle as that which arises from the dream, and that which returns. He spoke for a time on life within the dream, how the realms of dreaming and reality were not contrary; merely aspects necessary to create cycles that could grow. That the material world was simply a proxy of the dream, and to truly understand magic, the forces behind this physical perception must be explored. With that Seth departed together with the Arát in an attempt to harvest the knowledge of the material world, leaving the remaining gods and their creations to their own devices. The words of Seth remained inscribed in the minds of all those present, and soon spread rapidly throughout all of creation, through the discovery that new perspectives and knowledge of the dream brought control and power. Gzaji and Minara together built their own secondary creations, the Kandari and Sigmir respectively, hoping to capture the multiple aspects of their world in physical form. Of these creations, the Kandari took to the outer world, and the Sigmir returned to the cities, transformed by a fervent drive for study and the mixing of dreams. From the words of Seth even those most loyal to Minara and Gzaji soon separated from their prior beliefs, through fear of obscurity, for want of knowledge, and by the addiction of dreaming. Category:First Age